1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements to sun visors for passenger cars and other vehicles aimed at protecting the eyes and enhancing visibility and comfort of the driver, the front seat passenger, and also other passengers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Current passenger cars and similar vehicles (vans, trucks, etc.) are equipped with a single sun visor on the driver side and another on the passenger side. Each visor is movable and can cover at any one time only the front windshield, or a front side window but not both. As a consequence, a problem arises when driving a winding road on some early mornings or late afternoons when the driver finds it necessary to frequently switch the position of a visor back and forth between locations along the front windshield and the front side window. The inventiors faced such a situation on several days recently when driving in Florida and other southern states. The situation was uncomfortable for two additional reasons. The inventors, like a relatively large number of drivers, set the front seat close enough to the front of the car to require the driver to move his/her head every time the visor needs to be moved from one side to the other to constantly protect the eyes and to avoid the unpleasant alternative of being frequently hit in the face. The situation even becomes dangerous in heavy fast moving traffic. There are other times when one is turning at an intersection and the change in the position of the visor can be anticipated.
For the above reasons the inventors are introducing dual visors or shades for added safety and comfort in certain situations when a driver (front seat passenger) finds it desirable to protect his eyes in advance by moving dual visors to simultaneously cover critical locations of both a side window and the front windshield.
Dual visors were introduced by others. The advantage here is the novelty of the design and the simiplicity of operation.
Additionally, the state of the art in automating various functions in a car at the touch of conveniently located buttons is presently quite advanced. One objective here is to apply this vast technology to automate the movement of sun visors or sun shades. This could be convenient when the driver finds it desirable to control the visors or shades on the front passenger's side. An advanced approach would be to install sensitive photocells at representative locations near the top corners of front windshields and front side windows. The driver could select a setting of the desired minimum light intensity which would trigger a switch to connect visor(s) motor(s) to the vehicle's electric system to automatically move the visor(s) to the proper location(s). In summary, the movement of the visors or shades may be controlled manually, at the touch of a button, or the motion can be triggered or controlled by (solar power) sun rays of a minimum driver set intensity striking photocells placed at convenient top locations of the front windshield and/or the front side windows. In either case, the driver or front seat passenger can override the automated motion and manually move the visors or shades.